Returned
by xooxu
Summary: After three years, Sora comes to Kairi. Set three years after they find the bottle from the king. -oneshot maybe OOC, character suicide and death, shonan ai, no SoKai- REVISED, because I always liked this one.


This is some sad story written quicky. My emotions are kinda fucked up at the moment. So I wrote this for fun. It's sad, and maybe OOC. It's about Sora after he went missing for three year, set post KH2.

**Disclaimer:** Yeah right. Do you honestly _think_ I would own anything?

**Warning:** Mentioned character suicide and death, tiny, tiny, tiny shonen ai. No SoKai.

* * *

Kairi simply stared, the door left forgotten behind her, and she nearly dropped her groceries on her porch. She knew that three would make one grow, but it was such a change. Where was the laid-back, care-free goofball that she was so used to? No, instead stood the almost forgotten now eighteen-year-old, with hard blue eyes, slightly spiked brown hair, and a harsh scar trailing from his temple all the way down along his jaw line. He was much taller than she, and he had obviously grown five or six inches. His body was lean, toned and tanned from the few years he had worked with his sword and muscles. "S-Sora?" Kairi asked, hesitant to recognize that this ... this man, no longer a boy, was the same child she grew up with who always protected her. 

"Sora ... what happened to you?"

Sora looked over Kairi, thankful that after three years, she still kept the same address. She had grown as well, but not as drastically as himself. Her long red hair now flowed well past her shoulder. She was not much taller than she was at fifteen, maybe a few added inches to her height. Her eyes still glowed with warmth and kindness, as his once did, but her face had matured into that of a beautiful young woman. "Hello Kairi, nice to see you."

The darkness of the night floated softly around Kairi's small yellow light bulb that cast a shade of yellow on everything without really lighting any of it.

"Wow. Just really ... wow. Three years, three year without a word, and you just show up? Like, out of the blue?"

Sora smiled, replied with a curt, "Yeah, pretty much." Silence rung for several minutes between the two, as if one tried to make sense of it all, and the other allowed her to. "Why, did you want me to stay longer?"

"Where were you? You left to be the king's knight, and a few months later, the king says you never came back from a mission. Says that you left a letter that if you need help, you would ask, but you wanted everyone to stay out of it otherwise."

"Some shit came up," was all the man said, looking down at the steps to Kairi's porch steps that were all that separated the two from each other. "I'm sorry for not saying anything, but I didn't want to get everyone involved again. And honestly, I didn't think it would take as long as it did."

"Sor-"

"Kai, please. Just ... don't."

Silence clouded the air again, blanketing them with crushing force, both wanting to break it, but neither sure how.

"How is everyone?" Sora asked nervously; for some reason, he knew that it would be tough for the girl, but he still had to know.

"Sora, Riku ... killed himself."

Sora was silent before he sighed, and in a low, sad voice said, "I thought it would be something like that."

It was just then that Kairi realized that whatever had gone on wherever Sora had been, he had kept them away for a reason. He was hard, almost unmoved by Riku's death, which said something to the red-haired girl.

"Do you know why?"

"I made a promise. He made me promise to let him tell you first, but since he can't, and almost no one else knew, I'll have to break it. Sora, Riku fell in love ... with you," Kairi said, ignoring the widened eyes and surprise on Sora features, "When you left, he expected you to come visit, or write, or _something_ to let us, to let him know you still cared. So after three months with no sign, we wrote to the king, and he wrote back exactly what you said. So Riku was determined to go look for you; he went to Radiant Garden, and Twilight Town, and Traverse Town, and ALL over, asking about you. And of course, he never found you. You just disappeared. After six months, Riku returned home, but wrote to everyone to come and tell him if _any_ sign of you turned up.

"A year later, no one had said anything. So Riku tries to move on, tries to forget about you. I've found myself going on dates by then, so Riku decided to date this new boy from the main land. Pretty boy, seams to care about Riku, and he promises he'll never hurt Riku. But Riku could never forget you. No matter how hard he tried. He was in love. He would still talk with me about you, even two years after we saw you last, sometimes cry about you. But after a while, the boy he was dating somehow found out about you, and started cheating. They broke up several times, but the boy always got on Riku's good side, and Riku would give him another chance."

Sora couldn't believe it. It wasn't sinking in, how could he have caused so much?

"But the boy finally cut him off. He just left him, for some bitchy girl. He just couldn't take it," Kairi finished. The bags of groceries were set on the railing and the red haired girl was sitting on the steps of her porch. Sora leaned against the railing, still comprehending the news. For the first time in what seamed a long time, he was starting to feel the pain of death. He said nothing, not trusting his voice.

"It happened only three months ago."

"I ... it was all my fault."

"Yes. I believe it was."

"I-I'm sorry."

"... Will you tell me where you where you went?"

Sora sighed, staring into the night sky and faraway stars. Now that he tought of it, those stars were no where near as far as they once seamed, that endless sky not so endless anymore. "The mission the king sent me on, a 'find out what the fuck's going on' mission, led me to some new worlds that were dead. Balamb, Zanarkand, and some other pretty weird places. And when I say dead, I don't mean empty, I mean _dead_. I mean, everyone had just fallen over dead, for no reason. I had seen several cities that had made lose my lunch, but finally, I made it to somewhere new: Midgar. It was the only city with any form of life." Sora sat down next to Kairi on her steps, still staring at the dark blue sky.

"It was home to the resistance, also known as 'Shinra'. Apparently, they knew Cloud and Leon, and were so glad to inform me what the fuck was going on," Sora sighed. He still hated the word. Just the word was enough to make him want to kill something. "Soulless. The remnants of Nobodies after they fade, the lost souls. They kill, capturing the soul, necessary for living. There is no chance of regaining a lost soul, so everything they touched, they killed. I met so many new people: Reno, Rude, Zell, Irvine, Rufus, Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, Vincent, Laguna, Zack. They all ended up dead after a while, all killed by the Soulless while trying to destroy them."

Kairi didn't understand. She really didn't, but she knew that Sora did. He had been there, fought back along side of them ... seen them all die. "H-how did you beat them?"

"I didn't. It was Vincent, one of the last. He had found some weakness, and launched a world wide spread of poison against them. I didn't understand, and he told me to leave. He told me to get on gummy ship and not return. The poison killed him, too, but that stopped them all. I stayed for a month or so, checking out other planets, making sure that the soulless weren't hiding anywhere. I didn't find anything. So I headed home, and you've been the first person I've talked to in about a month."

Kairi still didn't, still couldn't, understand, she never would. A whole war, a whole nother fucking war, had kept Sora away for three years. And she was the only person who knew other than Sora.

"Here," Sora said, handing Kairi a picture. It was a small picture Sora had pulled out of his pocket. It was of Sora's seventeenth birthday, and he was surrounded by some older men about nine or ten people. "Rufus, Laguna, and Zack were already dead, but there's everyone else."

"You look happy." Kairi smiled. She loved to see Sora smile.

"It was everyone's first break in months. So, yeah, we all enjoyed the break."

Sora had changed, which wasn't hard to see if you just looked him in the eye. Where there was once kindness, softness and care, there was now hard emotionless pools of ocean blue. He was strong, but that barely mattered anymore. Kairi assumed he would just go back to working for the king, or go live on his own. Despite his isolation, he was completely normal. Like it had no affect on him other than a cold side and a want to be alone. He was social if he was pressured to be. The brunette reminded Kairi of Cloud, to be honest.

"So you haven't seen the King or Leon or anyone?" Kairi spoke, breaking a minute long silence she didn't even notice.

"I ... I was hoping to see Riku before anything. I ... had something to tell him, but I guess I can't."

"What?"

"Nothing. There's no point now."

"... So what now? Where are you going now?"

"Reno left a message for Cloud. I'm probably going to head over to Radiant Garden first, then back to Disney Castle for me. Even if Mickey doesn't want me for a knight anymore, I should still tell him what happened."

"... Makes sense. Sora, if you don't have a place at Disney Castle, you can stay with me for a while. Just until you know the next step, if you want. I'm not pressuring you, but ... your parents moved. Didn't say where, so ..."

"Thank you for the offer. We'll see if I need it, soon," with that, Sora stood and turned around to face the girl, smiling at Kairi, "I missed you. I'm glad I got a chance to see you again. I'll come visit sometime, maybe."

And so, Sora walked away, leaving the red haired girl for the ... not the second time. He had disappeared several times before. And that only made her feel better about letting him walk away from her life. For each time they were separated, he always came back to save her when she needed it. He knew when he needed. Like now. She had needed some one to talk to about Riku, since no one on the islands dared to mention him to her. Sora was sigh of relief.

A thought came to her, something touching, worth becoming reality, becoming something, "Wait! Sora, hold on!"

The man turned around to see the girl jump up off the steps and run towards him, stopping in front of him.

"Come with me ... to see Riku. He would want that. You can tell him what you wanted to tell him. Just to say it."

Sora smiled, for that he thought that that was most certainly worth becoming reality, too. "Of course."

So Kairi led the familiar route that Sora hadn't taken in how long. He was breathless at the beauty of the beach in the night. He had forgotten that there was anything as amazingly unbelievable as the rush of the small, dark waves against the pale blue sand in the night. And in that split second, he imagined a fourteen year, brown haired boy chasing after his silver haired, older friend, a small red haired girl fallowing behind the two. And he smiled.

The stone engraved "Riku Highland" was in the middle of the cemetery. It was a beautiful marble headstone, not too fancy, but elegant in a simple way. Perfect for Riku.

"He could never forget you," Kairi sighed, remembering the eighteen-year-old, almost nineteen, in the last few weeks of his life, "could never hate you. But he felt so lonely, so forgotten."

"He wasn't forgotten, Kairi," he looked at the girl, "I promise. I wish I hadn't been as stupid as I was, now. I've lost so many friends in the past three years. I'm sorry to have lost this one too."

"What did you want to tell him?"

Sora looked back at the headstone, "That I loved him."

"... I'm glad you told him."

Sora didn't know what to say. He had nothing left to say. "I promise to come back this time, no matter what. I promise."

"So, off to Hollow Bastion?"

Sora nodded, "Radiant Gardens, and that's the plan," then Sora wondered. "What are you doing? Out of high school, yet?"

"I just graduated from high school. So I'm off to college. I plan to major in science. Maybe become a science teacher or something. Nothing set in stone yet. I've got a whole life left."

"I really think you would make a wonderful teacher."

"Thank you."

"You're truly welcome." And now, Sora turned away from Kairi, away from Riku's finally resting place, and walked away. And Kairi let him. When she no longer heard his footsteps, she, too, turned and walked away.

* * *

Yeah, I know, how depressing. I might write about what Reno said to Cloud, if anyone cares. But probably not, since my oneshots seam to go ignored. (I went and fixed some spelling and grammar mistakes, if anyone saw)


End file.
